Parents...

Parents...  Here's a collection of photos I found in my mom's collection that include photos of one or both of my parents.  First up: a group of photos of me as a baby with my mom.  The first one is dated December 1952, when I was about 3 months old.  The other three are from June 1954, when I was almost two years old.  The first two of those are taken in roughly the same place, where there's a circular sidewalk.  I believe this was on the southeast corner of my grandparent's home.  The last of these is actually marked as being taken on the porch of my grandparent's home.

Next up: one that none of my siblings will recognize the location of!  This one was taken in the kitchen of the tiny third-floor apartment that we (my parents and I) lived in for a couple of years while our home was being built.  I believe we moved into our home in the spring of 1953, shortly after my brother Scott was born.  That means he probably spent a few months in this apartment, too, but only as a teensy infant.  I actually have a few memories of that place, despite being so young.  I instantly remembered that kitchen.  My high chair is out of the frame, just off to the right.  My mom is holding me, and the little boy on the left must be my cousin Jonathan (who lived in the lower regions of the same house).  For me the big shocker in this photo was my dad: wearing a tie and sporting a mustache.  Both are nearly inconceivable :)  Those look like dress pants, too – I'm astonished that he owned any!

At left is a photo dated August 1959 and marked on the back (in my mom's handwriting) “Lake Oswego”.  That threw me, as the Lake Oswego I know is in Oregon, and we never went to Oregon in 1959!  After a little investigation, I concluded this must be a typo: she really meant Oswego Lake, which is not far from our family home in New Jersey in the New Jersey pine barrens.  I have lots of memories of the pine barrens, but not of Oswego Lake in particular.  I was almost 7 when this was taken.  Left-to-right the foreground people are my dad, me, my sister Holly, my mom, and my brother Scott.

The photo at right was a nice surprise for me, because the older lady at the left is my great-grandmother Emma Jobes.  I didn't recognize her, as this was taken in December 1952 when I was two months old (that's me in the middle, and my mom at right) and Emma looks quite a bit younger (and sprier!) than my first memories of her.  I'm glad to have another photo of her.

Here's the whole family at Christmas dinner in 1958 (at left).  My dad is missing from the photo, so I'm assuming he's the one who took it.  Left-to-right there's my brother Scott, me, my sister Holly, and my mom.

Here are a few photos (below) of my dad with my brother Scott and I.  In the first photo he looks like he's squinting up at the weather.  He's wearing the  old Army surplus jacket that he bought in an auction lot (the same lot in which he bought a brand-new Jeep disassembled in barrels of cosmoline).  This was taken in February 1957, when I was four.  That's me on the left, my brother Scott on the right.  We're walking along the driveway to our house, heading toward it.  The second photo is my dad and I in the summer of 1953, when I was just under a year old.  I'm not sure where we were, but I'm guessing either the Jersey shore or possibly Maine (though it's usually a bit cold for swimming there!).  The last photo was also taken in February 1957.  Scott is in the center and I'm on the right.  We're walking along that same driveway, but this time you can see our old water tower in the distance, between dad and Scott.  Scott is hiding the larger shed, but the smaller shed is visible to the right of me.  Lots of memories in that photo!

At right is a photo of my mom that I had never seen before.  On the back, in her writing, it says “at age 18”.  The house in the background is her parent's home in Locust, New Jersey.  I remember that swing!  The photo looks to me like it was retouched on the negative, but I could be wrong.  She and my dad were married when she was just 19...

Last but not least, here are a couple more candid shots of my mom.  The first one says “me with some of my flowers” on the back, in my mom's handwriting.  There's no date.  I think she's in the northeast corner of our home's dining room, before they carpeted it.  That would put it somewhere in the late '50s or early '60s.  In the second photo, she's in our living room, carving a (rather large!) pumpkin on our card table.  To the right of her in the photo you can see our front door, which we rarely used.  The two rockers in the background I remember, along with that table next to the door.  And the card table!  We played many a game on that table...